


Acquaintances to Brothers

by mulderitsdee



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Ben Hargreeves Deserves Better, Brotherly Love, Canonical Character Death, Drug Use, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Suicidal Thoughts, it's not romantic you fucking nasties
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-11-23 22:05:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18157622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mulderitsdee/pseuds/mulderitsdee
Summary: "Ben’s dead and Klaus wishes he were alive, Klaus is alive and he wishes he were dead. At least the irony of the situation isn’t lost on him."A snapshot of Klaus and Ben's relationship through the years from Ben's death until the events of the show. What if they weren't always as close as they are now? What if they had no choice but to learn to get along and ended up caring about each other somewhere along the way.





	Acquaintances to Brothers

**Author's Note:**

> For Elliot who inspired this fic, and who is like a brother to me.

**2005: Aged 16.**

Ben dies, and it fucking sucks. It sucks because out of all of them he was the nicest and the one who deserved it least. Oh Allison is all smiles and charm sure, but Klaus has seen the things she uses her rumours for, sees the hunger in her eyes when she looks at hollywood magazines and knows there’s nothing she won’t do to be the one starring on them some day. Mostly though, it sucks because Klaus has to be sober for the funeral. His skin itches with the need for something to take the edge off, but everyone will lose their shit at him if he even looks so much as a little stoned. Besides, he probably owes Ben this much at least. It’s not like they were ever super close, none of them ever have been, but the least he can do is be sober enough to make it through the service without passing out. 

Sir Reginald unvales a statue that looks nothing like Ben, and drones on about honour, duty and sacrifice. Vanya stands at the back, alone, like always with her head down as if that’s going to do anything to hide the fact that she’s crying. Allison is weeping steadily, Luther’s arms wrapped around her shoulders, and Diego stands there with his fists clenched and his jaw working overtime. No one knows where Five is, no one brings him up. For Klaus though it’s not sandness that’s making his hands shake but anger. It’s all well and good for Reginald to talk about the beauty of sacrifice, but Ben’s life was never his to take. Reginald hasn’t sacrificed shit, and Klaus knows his sadness is only crocodile tears for the cameras. The only thing he’s sad about is that he has one less kid to experiment on, Klaus is sure of it. He never gave a shit about Ben, just like he never gave a shit about Five. How many more of them have to die for some madman’s ramblings about saving the world before someone says enough? 

The service ends and everyone piles back into their mansion to go to their own rooms and not talk to anyone. Bedroom number six’s door is closed, and it’ll stay that way forever now Klaus guesses. An hour passes before he pulls out the bottle of whiskey he’s been hiding under the bed. “Cheers Ben,” he mutters in the courtyards general direction before taking a swig and closing his eyes. 

**2007: Aged 18**

Klaus hasn’t been back to the mansion for three months, and at this point he’s pretty sure he’s never going to go back. It’s not like anyone will miss him anyway: Allison is off to Hollywood, Diego is off to go be a policeman, Vanya went to college for some goddamn reason, and Luther has a stick up his ass. He feels a little guilty about leaving mom but whatever, she’s a robot anyway so it’s not like she can be sad about it. As for dad, well, the less said about him the better. Last time Klaus got caught shoplifting Reginald had refused to pay bail, and given him such a scolding when Klaus finally got out that it made his ears ring. That about sums up where there relationship is at, so the old bastard can rot as far as he cares. Pogo too. 

He’s laying on the couch of a friend of a friend of a guy he hooked up with once smoking a blunt and wondering how long it’ll take Luther to go crazy in the house by himself when he catches movement out of the corner of his eyes. He rolls his head to the side lazily and stares at the angry looking figure. Ben. Of course it is. This is the fourth time this has happened since he died, but that doesn’t make it any less terrible. 

“Piss off Ben,” one lanky arm comes up to cover his eyes, like a little kid hiding behind their hands. If I can’t see you, you can’t see me. That’s not how it works, Klaus has known that for a long time, but you can’t sue him for trying. 

“Klaus-” it’s only the second time Ben’s actually talked, and Kaus feels his stomach churn uncomfortably. Vaguely he wonders who he pissed off in a past life that this is his sentence. 

“I mean it Ben, go find some other idiot to haunt, I’m not doing this.” 

“But Klaus-” 

“I said piss off,” he throws a pillow and it goes right through Ben, because of course it does. Unfortunately it’s that moment that the apartment's owner comes back to find Klaus arguing with thin air. She kicks him out that night, just to be safe. 

**2010: Aged 21**

Klaus comes out of the tattoo parlour with his palms stinging and a grin plastered on his face. Though hidden behind clingfilm and bleeding ink the words hello and goodbye glare at him from his palms and Klaus laughs long and loud. He’s pretty sure you’re not meant to get tattoos when you’re high but whatever, it’s just weed and a couple of oxy to see him through the pain-that’s practically medicinal. 

“You look like an idiot,” Ben says with a frown, but there’s a glint in his eyes that Klaus is learning to interpret. It means he’s amused just as much as he is disapproving which makes a nice change to just the plain old disapproving look Klaus sees just about every day now whether he wants to or not (he doesn’t). 

“It’s a good thing they’re not on your hands then isn’t it Benny Boy?” 

“I asked you not to call me that,” 

“And I asked you not to haunt me so I guess neither of us are getting what we want.” 

Tense silence stretches between them and Klaus’ grin falls into a frown. Of all the powers at the mansion he had to get the one that gives him a fucking Jiminy Cricket asshole judging his every life choice. Except Jiminy Cricket was more fun and, as far as Klaus knows, not asian. He definitely didn’t have eldritch tentacles coming out of his little cricket stomach anyway, Klaus is pretty sure he’d remember that part of Dumbo no matter how high he was when he watched it. 

“You know,” says Ben after a while and that hard edge is back in his voice, the one that comes out when Klaus is being peticularly insufferable, which is most of the time, “you’re a real ass.” 

“Yup,” he replies, popping the p sound in that annoying way he knows Ben hates. It’s followed by silence, and when Klaus looks to his left again Ben is gone leaving only empty air. Klaus sighs and tries to convince himself the sight doesn’t make his chest hurt just a little bit. 

**2012: Aged 23**

One of the good things about being haunted by your dead brother, and being the only person able to see said ghost, is you only have to buy one movie ticket. Normally the cinema is a luxury that Klaus never affords himself, but Allison has a new movie out and he’s never missed one yet. In the end he pawns a couple of things he swiped from the last place he crashed at for the price of a ticket and some popcorn. The snack itself isn’t really his favourite, but it is Ben’s. He keeps saying a movie isn’t the same without it, so Klaus buys it just to shut him up and absolutely not because it makes Ben happy. It’s not like he can eat it, anyway. 

The film is good, and Allison is stunning. She steals every scene she’s in and Klaus’ heart is so full of pride he thinks it might burst. During one of the emotional scenes he starts crying, and he doesn’t stop until the credits role when he claps and whoops so loud the lady three rows behind him calls him a weirdo. “That’s my sister,” he calls back, and she shakes her head at him because of course she won’t believe him. Any brother of Allison Hargreeves would have watched the film at the premier or something after all, not at 1pm on a Wednesday with the munchies. 

“God did you see her in the fight scene?” Klaus rambles as he and Ben walk out into the too-bright afternoon sun. “I mean, obviously she can fight but that was movie fighting and it is so much cooler. Think I could learn how to do that?” 

“You can barely put your shoes on without falling over,” says Ben which is, you know, fair and true but not the point at all. They walk for a while longer, dissecting the film and comparing notes on Allison’s amazing performance when they pass a phone booth and Klaus pauses. He has her number, but he’s never called, not once in all the time since they both left. It’s not because he doesn’t want to speak to her, he just doesn’t want to have to have those inevitable conversations. The ones about rehab and if he has a place to stay and has he seen of the others recently. Her face in the film is still fresh in his mind though, and he has some change in his pocket. It wouldn't take much just to call and say he saw the movie. He makes it as far as taking the phone of the hook before his hands start shaking and he has to put it back. 

“She would love to hear from you,” says Ben softly behind him, but he just shakes his head and leaves the phonebooth. Klaus’ shoulders are hunched, ready for an argument, ready for Ben to talk about how selfish it is that Klaus keeps refusing to do all the things Ben wishes he could. Instead Ben just sighs softly and mentions that the villain was kind of hot. Klaus smiles, despite himself. 

**2013: Aged 24**

Recovery, the lady at rehab keeps telling him, is almost impossible without a good support system. This is Klaus’ fifth time in the centre, and every time she says that it’s just another reminder of how fucking useless this whole song and dance is. If Klaus had a support system he wouldn’t be here in the first place, would he? It’s not like he can call his father and ask him to be his buddy and go to family counselling with him. Reginald Hargreeves wouldn’t know how to be supportive if he tried, and he never tries. 

It’s family day, and Klaus has locked himself in the bathroom. Well, he would have if he could, but one of the things about rehab, especially when you’re considered a risk to yourself, it that there’s no such fucking thing as privacy. So instead he’s sat in one of the bathrooms with his back against a door that won’t lock resolutely ignoring the nurse calling his name. Honestly he doesn’t know what he’s making a big fuss about, it’s not like he can do anything with a sink and a shower that doesn’t have a cord. 

“You should let him in,” Ben’s sat opposite him looking halfway between concerned and annoyed-a look he gets a lot around Klaus these days. Klaus doesn’t dignify that with an answer-just waves his Goodbye hand vaguely in Ben’s direction and closes his eyes. He can’t go out there right now, he just can’t, not to see people’s oh-so-concerned family members sat there weeping and promising to help. Not when the only person who’s ever given half a shit about him is sat here in the bathroom too because he’s dead. Unless you count mom, who does care about him he guesses but it doesn’t really count given the whole robot thing. 

“Klaus if you don’t respond we’ll have to have someone break the door down,” calls the nurse in that serious voice of his. It’s a bit much to be honest, how do they know he’s not just on the toilet. 

“Fuck off,” he calls back which at least confirms that he’s alive and stops them from breaking the door of its hinges right now. “I’m having some me time,” he puts just enough emphasis to make it sound like he might actually be wanking in the rehab toilet and Ben snorts out an ugly burst of laughter before he can help it. It’s enough to make Klaus shuffle away from the door and the nurse practically falls over his own feet getting inside, which makes Klaus regret that he’s not actually in here beating his meat-the guys face would be priceless. 

“Now Klaus,” and he’s back to that soft you can trust me with your feelings voice that makes Klaus want to vomit, “what’s this all about?” The nurse sees Klaus roll his eyes, but he misses the way Ben’s roll too in perfect unison. “I know you don’t like family day Klaus,” he says clearly trying a new tactic, “but there must be at least one person who you could invite? They don’t have to be biological family, anyone at all?” 

“Well…” Klaus begins, “there’s my brother but he-he-” turning away dramatically he forces tears to his eyes and honestly maybe he should have gone to Hollywood with Allison, “he died...and I’ll never see him again,” behind his cupped hands he winks at Ben, who shakes his head but laughs all the same. 

“That was mean,” says Ben later, after the nurse has stopped stuttering over apologies and talking about grief counselling, “you’re mean.” 

“Oh get of your high horse Ben you laughed,” Klaus is grinning at the ceiling, Ben perched on the end of his bed and the guy below him doing a good job of pretending he’s not bothered that his bunkmate is seemingly talking to thin air. Rehab is like that. 

“You’re a bad influence on me,” and to that there’s really nothing Klaus can do to reply except blow his dear ghostly brother a kiss. 

 

**2015: Aged 26**

Klaus is laughing. He shouldn’t be, it’s entirely the wrong response for the situation, but he can’t help it. Here he is, in the back alley behind some shitty club, a little bag of pills in his shaking hands talking to his dead brother who’s telling him he won’t let him do this to himself. It’s fucking hilarious. People coming out of the club glance in his direction and he gives them a cheery wave with his Hello hand as they give him a wide berth. He doesn’t blame them, he’d avoid himself if he could. 

By the time he calms down there are tears running down his face and Ben, if possible, looks even more worried and pissed off than he did before. It almost sets Klaus off laughing again, but he resists the temptation. His side aches and he feels light, almost bubbly. “Oh I really don’t think you have as much say in it as you think you do, mi hermano,” another giggle escapes his lips before he can catch it and Ben glares at him. What can Ben do about it though? He’s dead. He’s been dead for years and God if that isn’t just so many levels of fucked up. Good, kind, smart Ben is dead but he, Klaus the fuck up, is still alive and kicking no matter how much shit he pumps into his body and how many people bigger than him he pisses off. It should have been him. He says it at least once a month, thinks it more often than not; Ben didn’t deserve this, he did. Life isn’t fair like that. Neither is death it seems or Ben wouldn’t be stuck here with him watching as Klaus’ entire life falls apart in slow motion. 

“I’m sorry,” the laughter is gone just as suddenly as it came, leaving something raw and frightened in its place. His hands are trembling and he feels like something hollow has been carved into his chest. If he takes these he probably won’t make it through the night. He’s too high and drunk already, taking what he has left is just asking for an overdose. Probably he’d wake up again, he usually does, but he might not. He might not and that’s what’s so damn attractive about the idea. Ben’s dead and Klaus wishes he were alive, Klaus is alive and he wishes he were dead. At least the irony of the situation isn’t lost on him. 

“Klaus.” that’s all Ben says, just his name in that voice of his but it forces Klaus to look up and look his eternally younger brother in the eyes. He’s so tired. They both are. It takes so much effort, far more than it should, but eventually Klaus nods and shoves the small bag back into his coat pocket. He won’t take them tonight, and though tomorrow will be a different matter this is enough to at least make some of the tension ease out of Ben’s shoulders. 

“I’m sorry,” says Klaus again, because it’s the only thing there is to say. He closes his eyes against the tears suddenly threatening to spill over and feels that hollow feeling in his chest again. The air beside him shifts and becomes colder. Ben. This is the closest to physical contact they can ever get, and it’s not enough for either of them, but at least it’s something. At least it’s something. 

**2019: Aged 29**

Sir Reginald Hargreeves dies and a few hours later Klaus overdoses outside of a party and has to be revived in an ambulance. The two things aren’t actually connected, in fact it’s not even until he wakes up in the ambulance still shaking with electric that Klaus finds out that his father is dead. It makes him laugh, and he goes to say something to Ben only to discover he isn’t there. He isn’t there for Luther and Diego’s dick measuring either, or the service, or even when Five falls out of the sky acting like Chicken fucking Little talking about the end of the world. 

He turns up eventually, just before Diego drops them off at the bus stop, and chews Klaus out for nearly dying less than 24 hours after getting out of rehab. To be fair, he has a point, but whatever. The last 29 years haven’t made Klaus give a shit about his health, he doubts he’s going to start now. 

Things getting weird for a while after that. Klaus does a stint being tortured in a motel room, and then a few months in Vietnam, and then turns up at a bus stop at three in the afternoon covered in blood and coming apart at the seems. Ben can feel the second Klaus pops back into his own time, a tug in his chest as the connection between him and Klaus becomes taught again. It’s strange, back when he died he and Klaus weren’t even that close, but now even the past day spent not knowing where he is has sent Ben halfway to distraction.

Klaus sobs over Dave, and Ben sits next to him, and he goes cold turkey and Ben sits next to him while he throws up. Klaus goes to relapse and Ben punches the pills out of his mouth surprising them both into forgetting what they’ve been arguing about in the first place. Ben used to think that maybe he stuck around on earth because he had unfinished business with his family, or maybe it was the price of his powers. Now he thinks maybe it’s just that Klaus is a magnet for the dead, and that he gave up resisting the pull long ago. Then, to really put the end to a particularly weird and shitty week, the world ends. 

**2002: Aged 13 (again)**

Five pulls them back through time, and maybe space, until they’re years away from the end of the world and stuck in their teenage bodies. Klaus doesn’t think anything of Ben being there, and Ben doesn’t either, not until Allison puts her hands to her mouth and starts openly sobbing. Whatever science bullshit Five has done hasn’t just put them all back into their thirteen year old bodies, it’s bought Ben back to life. There’s some pretty heavy implications about Five’s powers there that they decide not to look into right now. Instead Klaus and Ben stumble to their feet and stare at each other, numb with shock and unable to move until they are. Until they crash into one another and hug for so long the other’s start to complain and then for longer still. And if their eyes are a bit damp when they finally pull apart, who’s going to blame them?


End file.
